Cameroon

Yesterday’s resignation of Secretary Chris Anu from the Interim Government of Ambazonia as Secretary of State for Communication sent shock waves through the spine of the nation. The news was unanticipated. Secretary Chris Anu has been a great embodiment of our struggle. His passion and dedication to our struggle will never be forgotten. His trip to Nigeria when Sissiku Julius AyukTabe and his team were abducted in January 2018 put in motion the reaction and support we enjoyed from the UN and international media. His messages, full of passion connected the diaspora with ground zero. He was the voice of a new nation. His numerous interviews on international media, clearly articulated the Ambazonia plight.

As the dust settles on his shock departure, many have been asking why this course of action. Why now? This media group has been briefed from the heart of government that HE Sissiku Julius Ayuk Tabe has instructed the IG on courses of action to follow for the benefit of the struggle. Without getting into much detail on this issue, we have been allowed the information that Secretary Chris Anu questioned the mental health of HE Sissiku Ayuk Tabe, and the other leaders in jail as they have been in incarceration for over twelve months. We can report that at the meeting, Chris Anu uttered ‘‘you AyukTabe will not lead from jail’’.

Whilst we take the view that Secretary Chris Anu is right to raise any concerns he has in a democracy, it’s worth noting that Sissiku Ayuk Tabe is still the leader of our nation and still chairs and leads our Ambazonian government. As Secretary Chris Anu isn’t persuaded that HE Sissiku Ayuk Tabe should be leading this struggle at this point, it was regrettable but honourable for him to tender his resignation.

It can be argued that this struggle took a turn for the better when our leadership team was abducted in Nigeria. As a nation, we have become stronger and more resilient. This struggle is bigger than any individual. The struggle will lament his departure but the ancestors of Ambaland will bless us with another gifted Communication Secretary in the coming days

Cameroon Concord News Group readers voted for Chris Anu as Person of the year in 2018. Our editorial desk, reporters and readers around the globe would like to thank Chris Anu for his contribution to the Ambazonia struggle and wish him well in all his future endeavours. Our world is a better place because he served the Federal Republic of Ambazonia but the struggle we now face as a nation will continue.

“In Germany, there was a race of very rich people. They had enormous economic power. And they were so arrogant that the German people felt a little nervous. Then one day, a certain Hitler came to power and put these populations in gas chambers.”

The main opposition Movement for the Rebirth of Cameroon called off demonstrations planned in several cities on Saturday, a party leader said, following a government ban on protests.

“The MRC will not demonstrate today,” said Emmanuel Simh, one of the vice presidents of the movement led by Maurice Kamto, the runner-up in last year’s presidential election who was arrested this week.

Authorities on Thursday banned planned protests in the capital Yaounde after a series of unauthorized anti-government demonstrations and some 200 arrests.

Former government minister Kamto, who claims to have been cheated out of the presidency, was arrested in the economic capital Douala on Monday.

His lawyers have said he is under investigation for alleged insurrection. Four planned marches, scheduled for Friday and Saturday and the following week, were prohibited for public order reasons.

Opposition marches took place in several towns last weekend, against the re-election of Cameroon’s veteran leader Paul Biya. Biya, 85, who has held power for 36 years, won a seventh consecutive term last October. Kamto came second in the election with 14 percent.

Cameroon’s main opposition leader, Maurice Kamto, who has continuously claimed he won the last year’s contentious presidential election, is in detention after he was arrested alongside dozens of protesters in the economic capital Douala on Monday (Jan. 28) for organizing and participating in street demonstrations.

The crackdown was also extended to reporters, with the arrest of two journalists on duty, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Kamto, president of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement, was a runner up to president Paul Biya in last October’s presidential election, coming a distant second with 14.23% of the vote. He claimed the election was marred with irregularities and immediately proclaimed himself winner. Kamto has since then been organizing sporadic demonstrations to reclaim “his victory.”

The demonstrations, christened “White Marches”, which were violently quelled, left about six people with bullet wounds. Up to 117 protesters were arrested in Douala, Yaounde, Bafoussam and Mbouda, according to Rene Emmanuel Sadi, minister of communication. The minister said the public demonstrations were unauthorized and condemned the “unacceptable maneuvers to destabilize Cameroon under the false pretext of an electoral hold-up.”

Demonstrations also took place abroad. In Paris, Cameroon’s embassy was ransacked while protests also took place in the United States, United Kingdom, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy and Germany.

Many rights organizations, including Amnesty International, have called for the immediate and unconditional release of Kamto and other protesters, underscoring the need for the government to respect people’s right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.

The government of president Biya, who has ruled Cameroon since 1982, is yet to respond to the many calls for the protesters to be released. This is similar to the uncompromising action the government took at the onset of the Anglophone crisis.

Back then in 2016, when a modest protest by Anglophone lawyers and teachers over perceived and real marginalization by the Francophone-dominated government erupted, the government’s instinct was to respond with force, deploying the elite Rapid Intervention Battalion and numerous arrests.

Many Cameroon watchers now believe the aggressive show of force frustrated any hope of a peaceful resolution of the conflict through dialogue early on after the government arrested trade union leaders with whom it was negotiating and outlawed the umbrella union.

There has been no end to the conflict in sight since then. And as the army has been empowered to use heavy force, many more people have been radicalized and increasingly bold armed separatists are earning support at home and from the diaspora and are multiplying in numbers.

Many now fear the recent twist of issues can take same course as the same cause always produces the same effect.

The lawyer for Cameroon’s arrested main opposition leader says he now faces eight charges including sedition, insurrection and inciting violence.

Christopher Ndong told The Associated Press Thursday that Maurice Kamto also faces charges that include hostility against the fatherland and disruption of peace. If he is found guilty, he could face five years to life in prison.

Kamto and members of his Movement for the Renaissance of Cameroon party were arrested on Monday in Douala. The party over the weekend had called for protests against what it called irregularities in the Oct. 7 election that saw President Paul Biya easily win a seventh term. Official results said Kamto finished a distant second.

More than 100 protesters were arrested in various cities. International rights groups have called for their release.

Authorities in Cameroon on Thursday banned planned protest marches in the capital Yaounde after a series of unauthorised anti-government demonstrations and some 200 arrests, including the detention of main opposition leader Maurice Kamto.

Former government minister Kamto, who claims to have been cheated out of the presidency in last year’s elections, was arrested in the economic capital Douala on Monday.

His lawyers have said he is under investigation for alleged insurrection.

Four planned marches, scheduled for Friday and Saturday and the following week, are prohibited for the “preservation of public order”, said area administrator Jean-Claude Tsila in a statement read out on state radio.

The organisers of the marches have been asked to “give up their plans”, the statement added.

Opposition marches took place in several towns last weekend, protesting against the reelection of Cameroon’s veteran leader Paul Biya.

Biya, 85, won a seventh consecutive term in last October’s disputed presidential election with 71 percent of the vote, according to the official results. He has held power for 36 years.

Kamto came second in the election with 14 percent.

Late on Wednesday, Kamto’s lawyers said eight charges had been levelled against him and some 200 other detainees, including “group rebellion” and “hostility to the homeland”.

He is also accused of “insurrection”, “breaching the peace” and “incitement to insurrection”.

All of the detainees face the same allegations, according to lawyer Sylvain Souop, member of a team of 15 lawyers.

“The ‘facts’ have been defined even before the people have been heard,” he said.

On Wednesday Souop met with Kamto, who was detained by an elite police unit called the Special Operations Group.

“He is well, his morale is good and he was interrogated (on Wednesday) in the presence of the director general of the criminal investigation division,” Souop said.

– ‘Destabilise’ the government –

After the weekend protests, Communications Minister Rene Emmanuel Sadi accused Kamto and his party, the Movement for the Rebirth of Cameroon (MRC), of trying to “destabilise” the government.

Anti-government protests also took place in some European capitals at the weekend, with Cameroonian demonstrators breaking into the country’s embassies in France and Germany.

In Paris, they smashed pictures of Biya and caused other damage.

MRC party officials have denied organising the protests abroad.

“Kamto denounces this vandalism in diplomatic missions. He has never sent anyone to break anything,” Souop said.

A former justice minister under Biya, Kamto “has confidence in the justice of Cameroon”, Souop said.

Other people detained by the authorities include MRC activists and the party treasurer Alain Fogue.

Security forces also arrested two Cameroonian journalists on Monday night, confusing them for political activists, according to the national journalists’ union.

Both men were still in detention on Thursday.

Press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders on Thursday said a journalist was assaulted “by three unidentified individuals as he was leaving his house” but did not specify whether the attack was related to his work.

– ‘Escalating crackdown’ –

In a statement on Thursday, the National Council of Communication (CNC) said it had noted a rise in “calls for sedition or incitement to tribal hatred” in the media and on social networks.

The CNC “calls on all those involved in the media sector to show professionalism and responsibility in the collection, processing and dissemination of information intended for the public”, wrote CNC president Peter Essoka.

Human rights groups have condemned Kamto’s arrest and called for his immediate release.

Analysts say the authorities view Kamto as a threat.

“It’s been a long time since Cameroon had an opposition figure of this stature,” Hans de Marie Heungoup from the think tank International Crisis Group told AFP in Libreville.

Human rights groups and activists are appealing to the Cameroonian authorities to immediately release opposition leader Maurice Kamto, who was arrested in the economic capital Douala on Monday night.

Prof Kamto was reportedly whisked away to the Judicial Police Headquarters in the capital Yaoundé. The area was cordoned off and no one, including his lawyers and journalists, were allowed access to the detained opposition leader on Tuesday.

Amnesty International said the arrest of the leader of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC), who came second in the October 2018 presidential election, signalled an escalating crackdown on opposition leaders, human rights defenders and activists.

Prof Kamto was arrested alongside four of his supporters.

“The authorities must immediately and unconditionally release them, as well as the peaceful protesters detained at the weekend simply for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly,” Amnesty’s West and Central Africa director Samira Daoud said in a statement.

Less tolerant

“Instead of taking steps towards improving the country’s human rights record, we are witnessing the authorities becoming less and less tolerant of criticism. This must stop,” the statement further quoted Ms Daoud.

The Network of Human Rights Defenders in Central Africa (REDHAC) said Prof Kamto’s arrest was a “flagrant violation of the law” and called for the “immediate and unconditional release” of the opposition leader and all those who were arrested in relation to last weekend’s protests.

The MRC secretary-general secretary, Mr Christopher Ndong, said Prof Kamto was arrested alongside several other party members. Two journalists were among those arrested.

Prof Kamto has continuously insisted that he won the presidential poll, whose official result show he emerged a distant second with 14.23 percent vote. His supporters have been organising sporadic protests against what they term “an electoral hold-up” in defiance of a government warning against post-electoral disorder.

Remain calm

At least 117 people, including Prof Kamto’s former campaign manager, Mr Paul Eric Kingue, and popular musician Gaston Serval Abe (Valsero), were arrested during protest marches in several towns including Yaoundé and Bafoussam at the weekend.

Saturday’s nationwide “white marches” by the opposition party were unauthorised according to Communication minister Rene Emmanuel Sadi. He said those arrested were “caught disrupting public order and perpetrating various assaults”.

However, according to the MRC third vice-president, Mr Emmanuel Simh, the hidden aim of the “unjustified political arrests, was to decapitate the MRC and Prof Maurice Kamto’s winning coalition”.

MRC has called on its members and sympathisers to remain calm and attentive to instructions the party national directorate would give.

Cameroon’s main opposition MRC on Tuesday accused authorities of trying to “decapitate” the party after its leader Maurice Kamto was arrested in the country’s economic capital Douala.

Mr Kamto, who came second in last year’s presidential election which he claims was fixed, was detained on Monday at the home of another politician, prompting some 300 people to protest outside.

The Movement for the Rebirth of Cameroon (MRC) “strongly condemns these unjustified and announced political arrests, whose hidden aim is to decapitate the MRC and Maurice Kamto’s winning coalition,” the party’s vice president Emmanuel Simh said in a statement.

MRC’s treasurer Alain Fogue was arrested in the capital Yaounde on Monday night, according to the statement.

DISPUTE

Cameroon’s veteran leader Paul Biya, in power for 36 years, won a seventh consecutive term in last October’s presidential election but Mr Kamto has repeatedly claimed he was the rightful winner.

President Biya, 85, has ruled the West African country with support from the army, government administrations and the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (RDPC) party that he created in 1985.

He was declared winner of last year’s election with 71 percent of the vote, which repeatedly faced allegations of fraud.

Mr Kamto received 14 percent in the election, according to the official figures, but his party has held sporadic protests since to dispute the result.

DESTABILISATION

Communication Minister Rene Emmanuel Sadi has accused Mr Kamto and his supporters of “attempted destabilisation” of the government. On Saturday 117 people were arrested during protest marches in several towns.

Mr Kamto’s former election campaign head Paul-Eric Kingue and rapper Valsero were among those detained over the weekend. The MRC on Tuesday called on its supporters to remain “calm” and affirmed its commitment to respect the law.

The whereabouts of Cameroon’s
opposition leader Maurice Kamto remain unknown. This follows his arrest on
Monday night in Douala alongside several other members of his party, the
Cameroon Renaissance Movement.

He was arrested at another
politician’s home in the country’s economic capital Douala following weekend
protests against President Paul Biya.

The opposition leader still
claims to have won last October’s election, which saw 85-year-old Paul Biya
secure a seventh consecutive term in office.

A press release from the party on
Tuesday called on members and sympathisers to remain calm and attentive to
instructions the party national directorate would give.

Cameroonians are taking their grievances against the regime of President Paul Biya to the world. Over the weekend, Cameroonians occupied the embassies of their country in Berlin and Paris, to support protests back home.

Protests continued on Monday in the capital, Yaounde, outside a police station, after at least six people – including opposition municipal council member and lawyer Michele Ndoki – were wounded and 117 people were arrested over the weekend in anti-government demonstrations. The government denied allegations that shots had been fired by security forces. But Ndoki and another opposition member, Celestin Djamen, suffered bullet wounds to the leg.

The government has reacted by accusing the opposition led by Maurice Kamto of wanting to destabilize the country. Territorial administration minister Paul Atanga Nji, responsible for licensing political parties, threatened to suspend Maurice Kamto’s Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC), for failing to respect Cameroon laws. “The MRC political party and its leadership have been very notorious in the disruption of public order since presidential elections were held in Cameroon,” he said.

The opposition won’t give up

Paul Biya, who has been in power for more than 36 years, won a seventh consecutive term in elections on October 7. But the poll was marred by fraud allegations, low turnout, and violence. Kamto’s party has held sporadic protests since then to dispute the result. The party leader himself, whom the government has refrained from arresting as yet, told his followers: “I am out to fight injustice. I am a son of the country who has decided to fight for and with his people until victory is achieved.”

Biya’s government has banned demonstrations and the security forces have not been shy in using force to disperse protesters. Human rights activist Ateba Bruno of the Cameroon Centre for Democracy says that not allowing peaceful protests is another way used by the government to stifle freedom of expression. “They refer to opposition parties as those who want to tarnish Cameroon’s image to the outside world. But after all that we have seen, I ask if it isn’t the opposition or the government who truly want to tarnish the image of Cameroon. We know exactly what is happening and we should stop such acts which do not honor our country,” he told DW.

Calling on the world to pay attention

The protests gained a new dimension over the weekend when Cameroonians briefly invaded andoccupied their country’s embassies in Paris and Berlin. In a video published on social platforms online, Daniel Essissima, one of around 50 protesters in the French capital, said that “Cameroonians are fed up with being taken for idiots.” About ten Cameroonians followed suit in Berlin, without inflicting as much damage to their embassy there as was the case in Paris. A large police squad removed the people from the Berlin premises in the early hours of Sunday.

The action taken by Cameroonians in France and Germany is a sign of growing resistance against Biya. The president is fighting on several fronts at once, including a revolt in the Southwest and Northwest Anglophone regions against what they perceive as discrimination by the Francophone majority. Armed separatists have been clashing with the Cameroonian military almost daily in the country’s equatorial forest.

A slew of problems for Biya

Attacks by Nigerian Boko Haram jihadists expanding into neighboring countries is another conflict Yaounde has to contend with. In the east, armed groups from the Central African Republic are an additional source of instability. All of this is putting a severe strain on Cameroon’s economy, further stoking grievances. And the loss, in November, of the right to host this year’s African Cup of Nations as a result of delays and concerns over violence was another serious blow to Cameroon’s prestige.

The ongoing conflicts have caused a drastic increase in the need for humanitarian assistance. United Nations Development & Humanitarian Coordinator Allegra Baiocchi recently said that the organization estimates that some 4.3 million Cameroonians, or one in six of the population, require lifesaving assistance.